Benefits of CrossFit from an Over 40 Mom

In case you didn’t know, I love Crossfit! For almost the last two years, I have completed a minimum of 5 crossfit workouts per week and my body has CHANGED. I went from a size 8 “healthy looking girl” to a size 2 very “muscular” mommy. My weight has fluctuated a total of 10 pounds, but, I’m settling at almost the same weight I started at around 140 for a 5’6″ female. No body believes how much I weigh when I tell them! I don’t remember the weights I was lifting when I started, but, I can tell you, it wasn’t much. My max clean and jerk is 130 and my Snatch is 97, which is NOT THAT bad for a girl my age!

What are the benefits of CrossFit, you might want to ask?

Improved strength, increased confidence, increased capacity for heavy loads over long or short periods of time. The best part of Crossfit is really the ability to go OUT and do adventurous things without too much extra stress- for example, a 2 hour bike ride or a 2 hour hike or an all day hike up a big mountain, or a even completing a six hour day of outdoor teaching and doing yoga (my day job) without feeling like I’m going to keel over at the end of the day.

What are my favorite parts of CrossFit?

I love the Olympic Lifts- particularly Cleans and Snatches. I have to say, though, that it took me almost 1.5 years of practice before I “mastered” them and I’m still no expert. These are hard as heck to perform correctly, and my coaches are still working with me on them. But, I love to practice them, I sneak extra practice in my garage and I secretly dream about lifting only someday!

What is the worst part about Crossfit?

Ok, this is very personal, but, I have a hard time when others beat me. I’m WAY too hard on myself and if I have an “off” day or if I just Stink on a particular day, I will feel bad about myself or repeat the workout later in my garage or work on the movement that I stank at later in the week. I don’t like to be beaten even if it’s by girls 15 years my junior, I just make myself practice more. Yes, I know this isn’t healthy and sometimes, I am little too obsessive about it. When this happens to me, I know I need to step back and go back to yoga and just CHILL out for a bit, life is too short to worry about crap like this. And, I do.

So, there you go! CrossFit in a nutshell, I hope you all can give it a try.

You are so inspiring! I’ve only been doing CrossFit for about 5 months now, but I love it as a part of my lifestyle. I truly hope I’ll still be doing it when I am 40! The Olympic lifts are my favorite, too.
.-= Mollie´s last blog ..So Many Pumpkins! =-.